Master and first officer of Korean bulker fined for sailing through Great Barrier Reef says Splash
- A master and the first officer of a South Korean Shipping Company have been fined.
- They sailed through the Great Barrier reef.
- The court outcome is being considered a good example of enforcing compliance in the Marine Park.
Passage
A master and the first officer of the shipping company associated with the incident have been fined. The penalty was made in the name that the defined shipping area was crossed. This region lies within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The two South Korean Seafarers were brought in guilty of surpassing the ship into a shipping exclusion zone through Palm Passage, offshore Townsville. Both of them were fined $40,000 and $35,000, respectively. In addition, this is a great lesson to prevent such incidents from taking place again.
Legal Action
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority chief executive officer Josh Thomas said that this outcome was a good example of enforcing compliance. “The Reef Authority places a very high priority on investigating breaches of laws that are designed to reduce the risk to the Reef from ships navigating within this World Heritage Area,” said Thomas. He further added, “Major shipping incidents can have catastrophic consequences for the environmental, cultural and economic values of the Great Barrier Reef, and vessel operators who flout the laws will be held to account.”
Risk
In this incident, the actions of the master and first officer have been found to have increased the level of risk to the safe navigation of ships through the Great Barrier Reef. This is despite the fact that no major harm has been caused.
The incident occurred in March 2022. This ship owned by a South Korean Company was built in 2005.
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Source: Splash
